Epic Games’ popular battle royale, Fortnite, has returned to the U.S. Google Play Store following a court order.
The game maker had recently settled its five-year legal battle with the tech giant, which stemmed from a dispute around the percentage of in-app purchase sales that app developers had to share with the platforms. However, the company lost a little ground on its related lawsuit against Apple, which was also over in-app purchase restrictions and commission structure.
After Epic Games launched a version of its Fortnite game that routed around the existing in-app payment systems on iOS and Android devices in 2020, Apple and Google removed the game from their respective app stores. Epic Games used that move to then file antitrust lawsuits against both companies.
In Apple’s case, the court ruled the iPhone maker was not a monopolist, but said Apple needed to allow developers to point to other payment mechanisms if they chose. Apple has been fighting the specific terms of that agreement, which were today partially overturned by an appeals court that called some of the restrictions “overbroad.”
Of note, the new filing states Apple can tell developers not to make their links to payments bigger or more prominent than Apple’s own. It also says Apple is allowed to charge a fee on purchases made outside its App Store. The latter is a significant blow to developers, who had finally been able to skirt Apple’s commission.
Meanwhile, Epic Games has reason to celebrate by returning to the Google Play Store after Google lost its court battle with the game developer, where it was ruled to have engaged in anticompetitive behavior. Under the new agreement, Google allows app developers to point to alternative payment mechanisms and caps the fees Google could charge.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney called it a “comprehensive solution” that doubled down on Android as an open platform.
The Apple ruling is below:
